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The Southeastern Coastal Plain (SCP) contains a variety of wetlands used by migrating and wintering waterfowl. Included in this area are the bays, sounds, and agricultural lowlands of North Carolina, which is the second largest estuarine system on the Atlantic Coast. It also takes in the pocosins, estuarine marshes, and large rivers of southern North Carolina, South Carolina and northeastern Georgia. Extensive bottomland hardwood forests and cypress swamps line these rivers and associated floodplains. Interspersed in these forests are hundreds of Carolina bays, which are small elliptical-shaped lakes surrounded by marshes and forested wetlands. Beaver ponds and inland reservoirs provide additional waterfowl habitat throughout the piedmont region of the Carolinas and Georgia. The highest quality waterfowl habitat in Florida is located in interior wetlands associated with major rivers and natural lakes.

Reservoirs provide additional waterfowl habitat in this conservation area, with more than 30 major reservoirs having been constructed for flood control, power generation, municipal water supply and navigation. They provide over 440,000 acres of open water, an undetermined amount of which provide foraging habitat via production of submerged aquatic vegetation, and all of which provide open water areas for resting/roosting habitat. Exotic plants, particularly hydrilla and Eurasian milfoil have become important foods in some southern reservoirs, particularly for gadwall, widgeon, ring-necked ducks, scaup, and canvasbacks.

Overall, there has been a net loss of habitat throughout the SCP. North Carolina stood out among southeastern states with an estimated loss of 1.2 million wetland acres followed in order of loss by Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Importance of this conservation region is less relative on a continental basis than other key wintering areas such as the MAV, Gulf Coast, and Southern Great Plains. However, the importance of this region to the Atlantic Flyway and to numerous species of migratory waterfowl should not be over-looked. Wetlands within the SCP provide winter habitat for up to 45% of waterfowl in the Atlantic Flyway and supports an estimated breeding population of at least 240,000 wood ducks. The SCP may winter upwards of 90% of the wood duck population in the Atlantic Flyway, where the breeding population alone has been estimated to be approximately 1.07 million birds.

Projects in the Southeastern Coastal Plain

North Carolina

South Carolina

Georgia

Florida

Alabama

Mississippi